The Crescent Lady Tigers softball team finished a strong season with a 26-6 record, advancing to the Class 2A State Tournament in Shawnee before falling 11-2 to top-ranked Dale on Thursday. Seniors Trinity Rice, Rylee Alexander, Eli Lovett, McKinlee Kegin and Reagan Williams played their final games in a Crescent uniform. GNL file photo
Trinity Rice battled until the final out of her final season in a Crescent High softball uniform, throwing 119 pitches against Class 2A’s topranked fast-pitch team on Thursday.
But it wasn’t enough to overcome two home runs by Dale slugger Kinley Patten and a host of fielding miscues by No. 12 Crescent, which lost 11-2 and was eliminated from the state tournament.
Rice wiped away tears as she walked to greet friends and family members following a team meeting with Coach Stephanie Riley.
“It’s my last year, it’s my last fast-pitch game,” Rice told the News Leader. “It’s kind of upsetting that’s how we went out.
“This has been my family for years. I’ve loved it here. I wouldn’t choose any other team to be on the field with.”
Seniors Rylee Alexander, Eli Lovett, McKinlee Kegin and Reagan Williams also played their final games for the Lady Tigers.
“We all just love and care for each other so much,” Rice said. “We treat each other like we’re sisters. We’re always there for each other no matter what. It’s a whole big family.”
Crescent (26-6) fell behind early against Dale (37-3). Rice walked the first batter she faced, got the second to fly out and then grooved a 2-2 fastball that Patten drove over the wall in right field for a 2-0 lead.
The Lady Tigers failed to capitalize on scoring opportunities against freshman pitcher Adalyn Quigley, leaving five runners on base through three innings.
Crescent appeared to break through against Quigley in the third when Jayda Nethon walked, reached third on a single by Ava Beaty and scored on a sacrifice fly by Rice.
But, Beaty was called out after the umpires ruled she left third base before Rice’s fly ball was caught.
The ruling quieted Cashion’s capacity crowd at FireLake Ball Fields. Instead of 2-1, the score remained 2-0, and Dale took advantage of the momentum swing in its next at-bat.
Rice walked the leadoff batter, who stole second and scored on a two-base fielding error to make it 3-0. A second mistake, this one by Crescent fielders who circled a popup but let the ball fall untouched, and a sacrifice bunt gave Dale a 5-0 cushion.
“So, we didn’t play very well. We had way too many errors,” said Riley, the first- year coach. “It’s insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. It’s what we’ve been doing all year long. Today, it definitely caught up to us.”
Crescent got on the board in the fifth against Quigley. Lovett tripled with one out (the ball dropped under the glove of the center fielder and rolled to the wall) and scored on a line single by Nethon. The junior utility player then scored on a double by Rice to pull the Lady Tigers within striking distance at 5-2.
Dale replaced Quigley with Macy Jones, who struck out Kynlee Moorman with runners on second and third to end the inning.
In the bottom of the inning, Dale answered with three runs, the first coming on a no-doubt homer by Patten. The Lady Pirates added three more runs in the sixth against Rice, who went the distance, striking out six and walking two.
Crescent committed three errors, leading to five unearned runs for Dale.
“We had a great season,” Riley said. “They made tons of improvements from last year. We made a lot of growth; we made a lot of culture changes. I’m very proud of them.
“ We’ve got some things we know we need to work on. We’ll take a little break and we’ll hit it again.”